Spice Fire One with FireFox OS, Priced Cheap at Rs.2,299 Hits Indian Market

Mozilla’s Firefox OS with few devices running on its platform has finally broken the hiatus with its latest Spice Fire One, priced cheap at Rs 2,299 to cater the popular range of buyers in the lower end or first-time buyers.

The market flooded with Android, iOS, BB 10 and Windows Phone have attracted the first-time buyers so far and the spice Fire One MI-FX1 is likely to change the scenario.

Specifications:

To be marketed exclusively on Snapdeal e-retailer from August 29 by Spice and Mozilla, The Spice Fire One mobile phone, with 2G-only dual-SIM phone, is powered by a single-core 1 GHz processor.

With a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen, it will sport two cameras – a 2MP shooter on the back, with a 1.3 MP front unit for selfies or video calling. It supports Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil and Bengali, and will have Facebook, Twitter and Connect A2 preloaded.

Prashant Bindal, Chief Executive Officer, Spice Mobility, said, “With the ultra-low cost Spice Fire One, we at Spice, aim to convert the feature phone users into smartphone users, thereby, aiding them with the power of internet. This partnership with Mozilla showcases our commitment to providing the best technological innovations first hand to our customers.”

Li Gong, President of Mozilla Corporation, said, “Just one year after the first Firefox OS device launched, Firefox OS smartphone is now available in 17 countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America. Our partnership with Spice will be an exciting Firefox OS launch in India. Having one more strong partner as Spice, we are confident that Firefox OS devices will realize a whole new category of smartphones with affordable price. Furthermore, we can ensure every user to enjoy the power of Web”.

More than that, Spice has given developers full freedom to develop and publish Web apps. The Firefox OS uses the Web standards of HTML 5, WebRTC or RTSP for live video streaming, apps and to convert web pages into apps. It provides instant access to all apps, instead of downloading them. Developers can publish any app for Firefox OS on the Firefox Marketplace, just like any webpage.

Mozilla, which is currently changing its OS for next year releases, is trying to set itself apart other OS systems with a cross-platform sync service with Firefox Accounts. With any Firefox account, Mozilla is trying to integrate Firefox Marketplace, Firefox Sync, backup, storage, location, message or wipe a phone if it is lost or stolen.

Its latest OS, version 1.3, has corrected issues like POP3 email support and NFC connectivity and made improvements to the camera app, with continuous autofocus.

But on the flipside, WhatsApp is not yet available on Firefox as it hopes first-time users are not quite adept at using it. Its main challenge, will anyway, remain the Android-dominated Indian market. Even Spice, more prone to Android, is falling behind to provide a page for FireFox OS. Otherwise, priced at Rs 2,299, the Fire One is bound to make its way into the market, especially for the first-time buyers.